My Agile 2013 session 'Rapid Product Design in the Wild'. In August 2012 Red Gate attended Kscope, a conference for Oracle developers. Instead of doing the usual product demonstrations, we turned our stand into a live lab and took Agile development processes out of the office and in front of our customers. Our stand included an area for customer research, a Kanban board and information radiators in the form of a whiteboard, blank wall and a large digital screen. Over 3 days we ran 9 sprints and conducted 25 customer interviews, using a paper prototype to get feedback. We collected invaluable information about our customers' development environments, how they work with their teams, their processes, tasks and pain points. By the end of the conference my colleague had developed an interactive HTML/CSS prototype which potential customers could evaluate. The team went through several rapid build-measure-learn cycles to improve our product concept and validate the market need. This presentation explains the process we used and introduces the Live Design Lab Planner, a tool which helps teams to plan this type of rapid product design activity.

1. Rapid product design in the wild
Agile 2013, Nashville
Michele Ide-Smith @micheleidesmith

2. About me
• User Experience Designer, Sketchnoter, co-
organiser of the Cambridge Usability Group
• Previously a…<Developer, Project Manager,
Information Architect, Head of Interactive, Web
Strategy Manager> working in <digital agency,
local government, software company>
• Agile since 2008
@micheleidesmith

3. Red Gate makes database and .NET tooling

4. “To make excellent products that truly understand our
users’ contexts, we must look further, and investigate
context first-hand” Cennydd Bowles

5. agilemanifesto.org

6. What makes you visit an exhibition stand
at a conference?

7. agilemanifesto.org

8. “By the time the product is “Marketing that itself
ready, it will already have improves peoples lives.”
established customers.” Bob Gilbreath
Eric Ries

9. “We wanted to make sure we were getting customer
feedback as we worked so that we were never working
on anything that wasn’t valued by the customer.”
Nordstrom Innovation Lab: Sunglasses iPad App

10. “if you’ve struggled to figure out how UX design can
work in an Agile environment, Lean UX can help.”
Jeff Gothelf, author of Lean UX
Some principles:
• Continuous discovery
• Shared understanding
• GOOB (Get Out Of the Building)
• Externalising your work

11. Hypothesis:
Oracle Developers & DBAs need a better way to
source control their database schemas
>70% interest – develop a tool a.s.a.p.

12. Let’s watch a short video about the case study

13. 9 (mini) sprints, 3 days, 1 prototype

14. Making our processes transparent

15. 25 feedback sessions with users

16. Easy to get feedback and quick to changeLo-fi prototypes are quick and easy to change
before you commit to code

17. Helped build personas and a talking point!People returned to see the feedback we had
gathered throughout the conference

18. The Empathy Map helped us understand
customer needs

19. Creating an ‘affinity map’ helped to quickly
analyse feedback about features

20. Sketching out processes and environments
identified real-world scenarios and pain points

21. It’s all about communication…

22. …and collaboration

23. Feedback went directly into the HTML/CSS
prototype, using Twitter Bootstrap

24. Keep the conversation going

25. Surveys to test hypotheses

26. Interviews and remote usability testing on prototype

27. Releasing functionality early and getting feedback

29. “The live lab was a wonderful idea. I enjoyed
participating in it and can't wait to see the finished
product. Let me know if you need a beta tester.”
Christoph Ruepprich, Oracle Developer

30. • Introducing the Live Design Lab Planner
• Split into groups
• Choose a scenario
• Fill out the Live Design Lab Planner
• Feedback to the group
Now it’s your turn to plan a live design lab!

31. Live Design Lab Planner
Hypothesis
Lab location
Data collection & analysis
Team roles
We believe that [building this product/feature] [for these people] will achieve [this outcome]*
Where will you reach your customers? E.g. in
store, trade show, public place
Who will be running the live design lab? What are their roles?
How will you record observations? How will you analyse data on the fly? How will you set up the lab? What equipment and materials will you need to take with you?
Lab equipment
A tool to help plan and run rapid product design in the wild
Measure of success
We will know we are successful when we see [this signal from the market]*
Created by: Michele Ide-Smith | @micheleidesmith | www.ide-smith.co.uk
Project name:
How will you attract customers?
Promotion
Business or design problem
What problem are you aiming to solve?
Date created:
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy
of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/.
* Thanks to Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden, authors of www.leanuxbook.com, for this template.
Toolbox
What methods will you use to get customer feedback? E.g. paper prototype, survey, wizard-of-oz, bodystorming
What are the risks and how can you avoid them? Do you have backup plan?
Risks

32. Questions?
Michele Ide-Smith
User Experience Specialist
Red Gate Software
e: michele.ide-smith@red-gate.com
@micheleidesmith
b: ux.red-gate.com
www.ide-smith.co.uk
@micheleidesmith

33. Thank you for listening
More information:
red-gate.com/source-control-for-oracle
ux.red-gate.com/blog
References:
Designing With Context: http://www.cennydd.co.uk/2013/designing-with-context
Lean Startup: http://theleanstartup.com
Nordstrum Innovation Lab video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=szr0ezLyQHY
The Next Evolution of Marketing: www.marketingwithmeaning.com/the-book
Lean UX Book: http://www.leanuxbook.com
Affinity Map: http://www.gogamestorm.com/?p=337
Empathy Map: http://www.gogamestorm.com/?p=42

34. Image Credits
Desert: Kevin.Cochran
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevincochran/4276052636
Software Developers working at Magenic in San Francisco: Wonderlane
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/2907868429
Quadrupedal ipad stand:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tim_d/4857399165/
Nordstrom building: Prayitno
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34128007@N04/5279860498
Test tubes: Paigggeyy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paigggeyy/5533236567